How to LIMIT the TABS function to the paragraph I have selected?

[Roger Knight]

In drafting a legal pleading in Word 2007, I have a need to impose margins of
0.5 inch on quotes as a way of distinguishing from the rest of the text of
the document. I use the Paragraph function and set the Outline Level to 1 to
LIMIT the margins and spacings and other features to the quote paragraphs
which I shaded. This usually avoids changing the margins of the entire
document which is what the default Body Text outline level does.
The problem is that once I have imposed 0.5 inch margins on a paragraph, if
I even TOUCH the Tabs function, regardless of the Outline Level, it
IMMEDIATELY CHANGES THE MARGINS OF THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT.
Which makes a mess of the document.
I would like to be able to change the tab settings of a particular paragraph
without affecting the rest of the document, as I have been able to with all
previous versions of Word and Office.
Are there any more such "rude surprize" bugs we get with the upgrade to
Office 2007?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Roger

In Word, paragraphs don't have margins. Margins are a property of a section,
and every Word document has at least one. You only need a new section if you
want to have a landscape page, or columns, or something else that changes
the page settings.

What you probably need is to indent some particular paragraphs. To do that,
select the paragraphs, and do Format > Paragraph. You can set the left and
right indentation separately.

An even better (ie quicker) way is to use a style. There's a built-in style
named Block Text which, by default, has a left and right indent suitable for
quotes. There's info on how to apply and modify a style here:

How to apply a style in Microsoft Word
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/styles/ApplyAStyle.html

How to modify styles in Microsoft Word
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/styles/ModifyAStyle.html

The Outline level is used to mark the structure, not the formatting, of your
document. A paragraph's outline level determines where it will display in
Outline View, how it will display in the Document Map, whether it will
display in some tables of contents and so on.

Finally, if you're making a small change that instantly, and wrongly,
affects the whole document, then maybe your Normal style is set to
automatically update. For info on that, see
Formatting applied to one paragraph affects the entire document
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm

By the way, are you working in Print Layout view? If not, try that, since it
might give you a better feel for what's going on with your document (View >
Print Layout).

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Roger Knight]

Shauna, this is a bug. In all previous versions of Word I have ever used, I
shade the paragraphs I want to affect, click the paragraph function, and then
click the tabs function when I want to reset the tabs.

Without affecting the margins of either the shaded paragraphs or the
non-shaded paragraphs.

But in Office 2007 or Word 2007, just touching the tabs function changes the
margins of the ENTIRE document. It is doing something I do not want it to
do, for there are other functions that can do that. If I am trying to change
the tab settings in the shaded areas of the document, why would I want to do
anything to the margins?

It is like driving a car that brakes when you turn the wheel right.

Car companies recall the cars when there is a bug in the brake or steering
systems.

I suggest sending this to the bug fix group and that they get a bug fix
ready for Microsoft Update.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I would guess this is a combination of the tab > indent function and
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm